Category: BBQ

Since I arrived here in Canada I have definitely been missing some of the Australian food. A classic recipe that we’ve been having a lot is a modern variation on traditional Aussie Damper.

One problem that I have had with my old recipe from Australia is that one of the ingredients that we had in Australia is not available in Canada. I’ve turned three lots of damper into raw lumps of burnt, uncooked damper dough.

Here is a version of damper using ingredients that I can get here in Canada, so that I can finally stop wrecking damper and disappointing the family.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups of Flour
• 4 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 teaspoons Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 – 1.5 cups Milk
• 1/4 Cup Butter

Preparation:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt) together in a large mixing bowl.
2. Using a pastry cutter cut the butter into the dry mixture. You use the pastry cutter so that you can get it to fine crumbs instead of creaming the butter.
3. Slowly add the milk into the mixture so that it forms a soft dough.
4. After it’s a soft dough then dust the dough with some extra flour and knead the dough until it is smooth and then form it into a round loaf.

Cooking:

BBQ  Cooking with a Pizza Stone (My usual method):

1. Preheat your BBQ to about 375F
2. Dust the pizza stone with flour
3. Place the round damper loaf on the pizza stone and cook for 30 – 40 minutes, until the damper sounds hollow when tapped.

Oven Cooking (I do this when it’s raining)

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Dust baking tray and place damper on the tray
3. Cook for 30 – 40 minutes until the damper sounds hollow when tapped.

Campfire Cooking (I haven’t tried this method yet)

1. Grease a Dutch / Camp oven and dust it with flour
2. Add the round damper loaf and cover
3. Place the camp / Dutch oven in the fire and cover with the coals and hot ashes and cook for about 30-minutes
4. Take the oven out of the fire and test the damper by tapping on it to find the hollow sound

Eat It:

The damper is great for dipping into hardy soups or stews and I love it with home made chilli.

Our favourite way to eat it though is smothered in golden syrup. Because of the butter that is added when it’s being made we don’t have to add more butter to it.

Healthier Option:

Normally we use white flour, which gives the best flavour, but for a healthier option I sometimes use whole wheat flour instead. The whole wheat flour makes for a denser loaf of damper so I usually have to use a bit more milk when making the dough and increase the cooking time by 5 or 10 minutes. If you find that this burns the outside of the damper then you can try decreasing the temperature slightly.

Links:

Here is the original recipe that I used. It used self-rising flour, which they don’t have here in Canada and was causing me all the grief.